Tag: Celtics

The 300s Podcast: We’re Going Green and Breaking Down the Celtics Offseason

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Friend of the podcast Mattes joins us on this episode as we break down the Celtics offseason thus far, we go around the rest of the NBA, a 60 Second Review of Uncle Drew, and Mattes rips into LaVar Ball. Listen on iTunes, Google Play, and The 300s Podcast is also NOW ON SPOTIFYYYYY

  • What Have You Liked/Disliked About the Celtics Offseason So Far?
  • What is the Future in Boston for Marcus Smart, Kyrie Irving, and Kawhi Leonard?
  • Mattes’ 60 Second Review of Uncle Drew!
  • Should LeBron Be Charged With Insider Trading?
  • Paul George Resigning With OKC is a Win for Small Towns Everywhere
  • What’s Going on With Old Friend Isaiah Thomas?

Danny Ainge Should Give the Spurs a Godfather Offer for Kawhi Leonard. Godfather: Part II, I Mean

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No, no, no, not a “Godfather offer” as is commonly used to describe an offer you cannot refuse. I’m talking about a Godfather: Part II offer.

Rumors are starting to heat up surrounding the Spurs’ trade partners for Kawhi Leonard, which the Celtics are prominently mentioned in. The Spurs have to trade Kawhi and Danny Ainge knows it. The whole league knows it. So why he would go out on a limb and trade one of his best young players for a guy that is almost assured to walk in 12 months is asinine. Sure Kyrie could walk at the end of next year too, but you traded an injured Isaiah Thomas and the No. 8 pick for 2 seasons of him.

Offer the Spurs a couple of low draft picks and maybe a bench guy like Terry Rozier and see if the Spurs bite. If not, then good day sir because I like this team heading into next season as is. The Celtics don’t have to add Kawhi. The Spurs do have to trade Kawhi though. And it would seem from all the rumors out there that the Spurs would rather send him East just to spite him rather than simply handing him to the Lakers.

Advantage: Ainge.

So let them take your blatant low ball offer, or they can go digging for gold with the Lakers, who, ironically considering the title of this blog, are now rumored to be planning a “Godfather offer” for the Spurs.

Your move, Danny. Don’t mortgage the future for 12 months of a guy who played only 9 more games in the NBA than me last year. I would love Kawhi Leonard on this team, but only on our terms. There’s no sense in pushing all your chips to the middle of the table for ONE run at this, not with Golden State still lurking in the West.

The 300s Podcast: Golf is Hard and is the World Cup Un-American?

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Get your Monday started the right way with a fresh episode of The 300s Podcast! Joey B joins the pod as we regale some tales from our latest golf outing, we debate if the World Cup is Un-American, and is Oprah secretly trying to sink the Patriots? Click here to listen or download on iTunes or Google Play. Subscribe and review today!

Also on this episode Joey B and I discuss:

-Our latest disaster on the links:

“Golf is the only sport where for whatever reason you just kind of expect to play well even though you only play once a month. Its also one of the few sports where having a six pack before noon actually improves your performance.”

-Tom Brady saying he’s going to retire “sooner rather than later” in his interview with Oprah.

-Joe and I argue about the true value of Kyrie Irving and whether he is now expendable for the Celtics.

-The MMA Minute

-Joe’s latest Snake It Til You Make It award winner

 

Steph Curry’s Nine 3 Pointers in Game 2 Set an NBA Record and Opened Old Ray Allen Wounds for Celtics Fans

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Steph Curry was putting on a show last night, hitting regular three pointers, hitting fadeaway threes, deep threes, hell he even hit a desperation three. The guy was just downright unstoppable in Game 2 finishing with 33 points. He actually set a record for three pointers made in an NBA Finals game with 9. NINE threes in a Finals game is absurd.

You know who held the record that Steph broke? Yup, Jesus Shuttlesworth himself. Ray Allen had eight three pointers and 32 points in Game 2 of the 2010 NBA Finals. Ya know the one the Celtics lost in excruciatingly painful fashion in seven games.

Well you hear Steph broke a record Ray Allen set while on the Celtics last night and you dreamily think oh man he was great in that series wasn’t he?

He was actually terrible in that series, shooting 37% from the field while going an abysmal 29% from 3. We’re talking about a career 40% 3 point shooter. Rajon Rondo had a better 3 point percentage in that series for christ’s sake. So yes he set an NBA Finals record that stood for almost a decade, but lets not forget the fact that he was downright awful the rest of the series.

After that record setting night in Game 2 with 8 threes, Ray hit only FOUR 3 pointers the rest of the series. After dropping 8 threes in Game 2, Ray dropped 4 threes in the next 5 games combined.

Maybe mix in a make?

So I just wanted to thank Steph Curry for reminding me of that.

This has been “The 300s Rehashing Celtics Games From 8 Years Ago.”

Lets Review Celtics vs Cavs One More Time, It’ll Be Cathartic I Promise

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Before I even write one word, I will admit this is all coming from a Celtics fan that just got got by LeBron James…again. So I may not be the most objective person in the world, but, the ball washing of LeBron that we are now witnessing is unprecedented. Its the number 1 reason a lot of people just cannot get on board as a fan of LBJ, despite being a once in a lifetime talent.

It hit its peak during this Eastern Conference Finals. LeBron James won the series with a herculean performance no doubt. In the 2018 playoffs he is averaging 34 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Thats bananas, but going into this series how many people actually picked the Celtics to win while being lead by a bunch of guys in their early twenties?

Lets go to the board!

Oh look three people.

Of the 22 ESPN “Experts” polled, all but three picked the Cavs to win the series, two of whom are Boston writers. And only 5 predicted the series would even go 7 games, so we can’t just turn around now and say it was some miraculous effort that LeBron willed this team to a win after you all picked him to win outright 2 weeks ago.

Hell ESPN said the same exact thing before the C’s played the Sixers too, giving them almost no shot of winning.

So is this a young underachieving team that got exactly as far as it possibly could? Or is this LeBron the savy vet, the all-time great somehow, some way getting past a Celtics team MISSING THEIR TWO BEST PLAYERS.

Its just recency bias.

Going into this series no one gave the C’s a shot because they were too young and inexperienced. Then the C’s win the first two to flip the script and put the pressure back on the Cavs. After battling back and winning the series though people are legitimately saying this is LeBron’s greatest achievement ever. The guy who has won three titles and is going to his 8th straight NBA Finals, beating the Celtics WHO WERE MISSING THEIR TWO BEST PLAYERS in 7 games is his greatest feat.

So while most of us still feel like this:

You gotta remember once Kyrie Irving went down we all said if the Celtics can get out of the first round then the rest is gravy. So while this loss stings, I know this team will be right back in it and competing for a title in a few months. This team took LeBron James, the greatest player of our generation, to 7 games on the back of a 20 year old rookie in Jayson Tatum.

So for the national media to come out as if this is some grand upset for LeBron and the Cavs to beat the Celtics WHO WERE MISSING THEIR TWO BEST PLAYERS is laughable.

Too many people are pointing to the Cavs supporting cast and saying LeBron has no help. Well, first off this is entirely his doing. If LeBron had committed to staying in Cleveland beyond dinner time then this team would be able to build around him with the security in knowing he won’t be jetting this summer. Plus most of these bums that people point to are guys that LeBron the GM forced his team to acquire and overpay for, whether its Tristan Thompson, JR Smith, or even Kevin Love himself. LeBron has forced this team to trade No. 1 overall picks, overpay aging role players, and had such a toxic relationship with a 25-year-old stud in Kyrie Irving that he forced a trade. All of that combined had a Cavs team constantly scrambling and slapping band-aids on a team that was generally building for right now rather than striking a balance and building for the long term. Thats how teams get old and supporting casts get slow. Thats on LeBron so I will shed no tears for that one.

Have we also forgotten the national reaction to the Cavs shaking up their entire roster at the trade deadline? The Cavs were not lighting up the world and Isaiah Thomas wasn’t a great fit so they hit the reset button on their roster and brought in Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., George Hill, and Rodney Hood. The national media all said the Cavs were the team to beat hands down after that.

Now to pretend like the Cavs weren’t always the favorite in the East and this is some grand magic trick by LeBron is just dishonest.

So, no I won’t build a statue for him because his team, who was the favorite to win the series, won the series in 7 games while the Celtics…say it with me…WERE MISSING THEIR TWO BEST PLAYERS.

I must tip my cap to the man though. After torturing him during the early years of his career and chasing him from Cleveland, LeBron has poetically paid the Celtics back year after year. The guy is incredible and as much as he drives me nuts, he is a joy to watch because he’s just that good. Gotta give credit where it’s due, and as Brian Windhorst points out, the guy is money. He may have imploded more when he was younger, but LeBron James just doesn’t choke these days.

“James has won six straight Game 7s over the past 10 years, two of them on the road. He has won seven of the past eight elimination games he’s been in, including three this postseason. And he has now come from 2-0 down to win a series three times in his career. That has happened only 20 times in seven-game series in NBA history.”

We’ll see you guys next year, until then best of luck to LeBron as the Cavs are a -1000 underdog to the Warriors in the Finals. Godspeed.

 

The Top 5 Moments from the 2008 Boston Celtics Documentary, Anything is Possible

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If you’d rather listen to The 300s than read it, just subscribe to The 300s Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, RadioPublic, or Anchor!

NBC Sports Boston has been teasing a documentary called Anything is Possible about the 2008 Boston Celtics and their championship season for months so I was pretty fired up for this 2 hour bonanza.

It was written and produced by Jim Aberdale and features interviews with players from the team including Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, Leon Powe, James Posey, Brian Scalabrine, PJ Brown, Sam Cassell, assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, and of course head coach Doc Rivers.

Thats aaaaalmost the entire roster, with two faces noticeably missing.

Unsurprisingly Ray Allen declined to be interviewed for this documentary, which was to be expected considering all his public drama with his former teammates. I was surprised however to see that Kevin Garnett declined to be interviewed for the doc as well. Theres more than enough clips over the years of KG to piece together some great interviews, but it would have been great to hear his take on everything today. I know he has plenty of tv work of his own with KG’s Area 21, but I can only assume he just wanted to avoid anymore questions about Ray Allen.

With all that being said, lets get into the Top 5 Moments from Anything is Possible:

1. The Kevin Garnett Arm Wrestling Story

Every Celtics fan knows how tapped Kevin Garnett is and how he would do almost anything to win. It turns out that isn’t reserved for just basketball. The team plane was full of competition whether it was dice, cards, or in this case arm wrestling and to hear Kendrick Perkins set the scene is a laugh out loud moment..

KG was challenging the entire team and even ended up beating Big Baby by sheer force of will, which is impressive considering Big Baby is listed at 289 pounds. Doc Rivers even called it the most athletic thing hes ever seen. KG tops it all off with a classic Garnett moment, screaming I’m the Alpha Male in this bitch. This guy is the most competitive person in the history of the world and I don’t think thats an exaggeration

2. Paul Pierce Recruiting PJ Brown on the Streets of New Orleans

A key role player on the 2008 Celtics, PJ Brown tells the story of how he came out of retirement to play for the C’s. Brown describes walking down the streets of New Orleans during All Star weekend and Paul Pierce’s car happens to spot him, pull up, and roll down the window. Pierce, having had a few cocktails gushes to Brown how the C’s could use him, but PJ writes it off as Paul just having a good time. Then Ray Allen sees Brown the next day and reiterates the Celtics interest in him joining the team. Pierce brings it up to Danny Ainge who signs Brown almost immediately

3. Big Baby Davis Being High as a Kite

Big Baby is clearly enjoying his time reminiscing over the 2008 Celtics and it is a sight to watch.

4. Kendrick Perkins’ Reaction to the Celtics Getting Ray Allen

Perk is the highlight of the entire documentary, especially this line describing his reaction to one of the biggest Celtics moves before the 08 season, saying

“I didn’t know what to think when we got Ray Allen, I just knew we got Jesus Shuttlesworth.” – Kendrick Perkins

5. Doc Rivers Response to Phil Jackson Mispronouncing Leon Powe’s Name

After a big game by Powe in the NBA Finals Phil Jackson complained in his press conference that Leon POW got more free throws than anyone on the Lakers. Michael Holley points out that if your getting in the zen masters head, you know you had the Lakers on the rope. Powe himself laughed it off saying he knew it was mind games by the LA coach, but the best reaction was from Celtics coach Doc Rivers: “I told our coaches I wanted to beat his ass.”

Thats it, the Top 5 moments from the Anything is Possible documentary, but don’t take my word for it. Go watch it right now, because that is two hours well worth your time.

https://anchor.fm/the300s/embed

Here They Come. Celtics Look to Close Out LeBron James and Advance to the NBA Finals Tonight

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The biggest game of many Celtics’ players lives is tonight. Game 6 with the chance to go to the NBA Finals right in front of them. A team that nobody gave a chance after the injuries they suffered is 48 minutes away from reaching the championship round. Now all they have to do is go through LeBron James and his 7 consecutive trips to the Finals.

Every time the Celtics have a big game I am compelled to post this video; it is my favorite Celtics commercial of all-time.

It was a different time and it was a different team. Back in 2012 the Celtics were the aging veterans, the old heavyweight, the last samurai — whatever you want to call it. They were on their last legs and they knew it and thats what made them so dangerous. It took an absolute HOF God Mode performance from LeBron ironically enough to knock that team off, but they had him on the ropes with the opportunity to close him out in a Game 6. Just. Like. Tonight.

This Celtics team could not be any different than that one. This team is lead by 20 and 21 year old guys with only a couple of “real veterans” to round it out. Jayson Tatum is 20 years old and looks like he’s a 10 year veteran, but this is all a first for him. Jaylen Brown seems to have taken on the role of a calming force…in his second year in the league. Al Horford, and Marcus Smart, and Marcus Morris, and Terry Rozier, and Aron Baynes and…and well thats probably it, but thats who we’re rolling with.

Great moments are born from great opportunity and thats what you have here tonight boys. Thats what you’ve earned here tonight.

Celtics Remain Undefeated at Home and are Now One Win Away from the NBA Finals

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Think about that headline for a second. The Boston Celtics are one win away from the NBA Finals. No Kyrie, no Gordon Hayward, hell no Daniel Theis! Yet they are 48 minutes away from going back to the NBA Finals for the first time in 8 years.

Granted they still have to finish off LeBron James in Cleveland.

The C’s remain undefeated at home in the playoffs this year at 10-0 yet are only 1-6 on the road. It really is preposterous how much better this Celtics team is at home than on the road, and you could say the same exact thing about the Cavs. The home team in this series has won every game and won it running away. In the first five games the home team has won by 25, 13, 30, 9, and 13. Thats banana land.

So I would very much prefer to have the Celtics finish off the Cavs and drive LeBron out of Cleveland on his home court. BUT, recent history suggests that is unlikely. But I really, really do not want to have to go to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to try and beat LeBron with a trip to the Finals (his 8th in a row) on the line. A game like that could go either way. Young guys like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Terry Rozier could absolutely ball out and it wouldn’t surprise me. Or they could wilt in the face of a veteran championship winning team while LeBron turns on God Mode for 50 points. So lets just avoid that scenario and take care of business in Game 6.

Boston got back to its winning ways and lead Cleveland by as much as 21 before ultimately winning 96-83. The Celtics had everyone chipping in with 5 players scoring in double digits, which is even more impressive when you consider the fact that Brad Stevens shortened his rotation to just SEVEN players. Only seven guys even got in the game last night: Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Aron Baynes, Terry Rozier, Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart, and Jaylen Brown. Abdel Nader and Guerschon Yabusele each got 2 mins of garbage time at the end of the game so that doesn’t count. Don’t tell Yabusele that though as he jacked up two 3’s (and missed both) in the 120 seconds he was on the floor.

Jayson Tatum had a coming out party in Game 5 as he was pretty much unstoppable, save for some missed layups that he should have had. Tatum led the Celtics 24 points and was beating defenders off the dribble and pulling up for daggers going 3-7 from deep.

Al Horford was solid with a respectable 15/12 double double on the night and earned a new nickname from The 300s in the process.

As we predicted on this very site earlier this week, going back home was the perfect elixir for guys like Marcus Morris so he could continue to be the glorious dickhead that he is.

In all seriousness though, I don’t think that counts as an official win in the NBA history books because if you didn’t hear, LeBron was tired. The entire second half the ESPN broadcast team reminded everyone how tired LeBron looked.

So that’ll be the storyline everywhere today. Not the fact that the Celtics have pushed the Cavs to the brink of elimination, it’ll be that LeBron didn’t have enough Gatorade before Game 5 so he was too tired. Maybe he should be taking a nap instead of doing all that exhausting reading before the game.

The Cavs were on their heels all night long as we saw guys like JR Smith come back down to earth scoring 2 points going 1-6 from the field and 0-4 from deep. Smith was playing hero ball all night long and I loved it.

The crowd at TD Garden had its fangs out last night too. After Smith banged knees with a Celtics player he was slow to get up and the Boston crowd, remembering Smith’s cheap shot on Horford and prior to that Jae Crowder, had little sympathy busting out the “FUCK YOU JR” chant.

Kevin Love was even getting the business from the rich white guys sitting courtside.

Basically when the Celtics win its because everyone is contributing and they limit the Cavs supporting cast. In Game 5 the Cavs only had 2 players in double digits scoring with Tristan Thompson (1 pt), Smith (2 pts), Larry Nance Jr. (2 pts), Kyle Korver (7 pts), George Hill (7 pts) all falling back to earth.

If there was ever one graphic that summarized this Celtics vs LeBron matchup its this:

So the Celtics have a golden opportunity to close this series out and earn a trip to the NBA Finals in Game 6 on Friday night. Until then though Celtics fans can take their fingers off the panic button.